Southern California Upholstery

Fantastic Job!!!
I had a 1956, Ford F100 muscle truck built for me, and when it came to doing the upholstery, I had gone to several shops that I saw on Overhauling, they were vague on the cost of the job, vague on the time needed, and they also acted as though they were doing me a favor by taking on the work.
Needless to say I kept on looking!
I found Southern California Upholstery by accident, I subscribed to Classic Trucks because they did a lot of issues on the Ford, F100 and in one I read an article where Southern California Upholstery was mentioned for doing the job, and from what I saw I liked. I drove down, and spoke to James Perales the owner, he was very friendly and made me feel welcome.
I explained what I needed and he was very enthusiastic at doing the job, I told him I had several months before I was ready for him, that was fine as he was booked up. He invited me to come back to his shop as often as I wanted, he explained that he wanted me to be familiar with his work, and he had some great cars and trucks he was working on.
I saw the quality of his work, and his attention to detail, as well as to his skill in creating masterpieces!
I came to his shop a total of 9 times before my truck actually got their, I saw this 32 roadster he did, and I told him that is what I want for my truck, the color of the material and the way it was designed.
Well my truck got to him, and he and I drove to pick up the materials for the truck, and he got started!!!
The job that he did is fantastic, so much so that I won a trophy for interior at Ruby’s carshow at the Whitwood Shopping center. I have several other shows that I am going to enter my truck in.
James does not spend one penny on advertising, a great majority of his work is by word or mouth, and while I was at his shop, I saw cars being delivered from as far away as North Carolina, Arizona, Texas, these guys somehow saw cars/​trucks at their car shows, asked about the interior as to who did it, and they immediately contacted James and shipped their cars/​trucks to him and all their contracts were over the phone.
I am still very, very happy with the quality of his work, the timely manner and his price was fantastic.
We quickly became good friends, and all of my experience was positive!!!
If you are looking for quality work, done in a timely manner, and your wallet doesn’t get raped!!!
Then Southern California Upholstery is the place to come to.
James has been doing this since he was 15 years old, and he has an incredible imagination, and you will not be disappointed.
When at car shows I will continue to recommend Southern California Upholstery to everyone who asks about this incredible work or art.
Thank you James for you incredible talent, your honesty, and the manner in which you treated me…

Okay… So I WOULD hesitate to recommend this business. It ended up I in fact needed to have some of the lumbar support removed about a week after my first post, and that was taken care of in less than 15 minutes, no problem. The seat back still wasn’t totally comfortable but I adjusted with the use of a pillow… That’s not the reason for my update.
I found a chair pad for it that fit the seat well and had a zippered cover. When that started losing support I went back to see about getting a piece of memory foam, and as they didn’t carry what I needed, was told it could be special ordered for $ 45.00. It seemed a little high to me and I said I’d do a little research and let them know. I called later that afternoon and told them to go ahead and order it. I received a return call from the receptionist about half an hour later and was told I’d have to pay for it upfront as the owner had been losing too much money on material orders, to which I said «no problem. Let me give you my credit card.» I was told the credit card machine wasn’t working and was asked if I could please send a check. Who uses checks anymore in this day and age of e-​checks, debit cards and automatic payments, anyhow? I told her I couldn’t as I was out of town and didn’t have any with me. I said «how about I give you my credit card information to secure the purchase and I’ll bring cash in when I pick it up?» She said she’d ask the boss and put me on hold. She comes back and said he said no, and asked me to bring a check in when I get back. I told her I wasn’t able to do that as they aren’t close to where I live. I reiterated he (James) wasn’t going to be out anything if he had the credit card information on file, and that if God forbid something happened to me between now that then that made it impossible for me to come pick it up, he had payment AND the product. She put me on hold again.
A man picks up the phone and says «can I help you?» and I asked who I was speaking with. He replies «the owner» (all attitude) and I said «Hi James,» and proceeded to tell him when I was in, what was done, etc, and he says to me something about them doing a lot of work and he couldn’t verify me (like I might be lying), and I said «really? You can’t look me up? You don’t remember a brand new blue Elantra that you rebuilt the drivers seat?» He says «You brought it back because the seat was too hard.» I reminded him it was because there was too much lumbar support. He goes on and on about how he’s losing money on orders like mine with people not coming to pick it up, and I’m like yeah, I get it, and you’re not going to be out anything. I tell him that for me to drive there, leave a check and drive back to pick it up is a little inconvenient. That I was hoping to be able to come in and pick it up next week when I’m back home and not have to wait another couple of weeks for the check to clear and the order to arrive. That my back is hurting and I would like to take care of this asap. I’ve already spent $ 450 with him and can he please accept the CC info as a deposit and I’ll bring cash when I come in.
Are you ready for this… Apparently the credit card machine IS working because he tells me he’ll run the credit card and is going to charge me $ 3.00 to do so. Are you FRICKIN’ kidding me? I told him they didn’t charge a fee to charge my credit card before and he says «well I am now.» At this point it’s not about the money, it’s about the principle! Not only has he CHOSEN to be a jerk and he and staff are liars (he doesn’t like paying cc fees), I spend $ 450 for something that hasn’t been right since I picked it up, and now he wants to nickel and dime me to death?
I don’t believe I was being unreasonable and I was addressing what his main concern moving forward, was… Goodwill and customer satisfaction is worth a lot more than $ 45.00! Saddest part is, they didn’t care when I informed them I’d be changing my 5 star review here. If they didn’t care about that, they surely aren’t going to care about you.

I just want to say I took my 2004 Silverado crew cab truck to have the headliner replaced
and to have the driver side seat fixed, it had a rip. I drop the truck off on Thurs. at 1:30 am
and get it back Fri. at 10:00am. WOW!!! And the work was Awesome! I talked to James
and he was very nice and knew what he was talking about. The price was fair but the work they
did was EXCELLENT! It was nice to find such a great company. Thank you all at Southern California Upholstery.
Joe Lopez

James does a great job as well as his workers. They listen to what you have to say and come up with solutions on how to do the job right. They have always done the job quickly for me as well. Very happy I have found Southern California Upholstery!

Didn’t actually use them to reupholster anything, but called to get information regarding some chairs I was considering upholstering. They were very helpful, giving me a rough estimate over the phone explaining the process & being quite honest as to the validity of whether or not it would be feasible to begin the project or replace with new chairs. I saw their work on-​line & would definitely check with them again if I had a project to upholster.